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FFA statement on Garcia report

Football Federation Australia (FFA) notes the release by FIFA of the Garcia Report into the bidding process for the 2018 and 2022 FIFA World Cups.

As the report says, FFA provided “full and valuable co-operation” to the inquiry and former FFA officials involved with the bid co-operated with this and other inquiries into the bid process over the past several years.

The report does not raise substantive new matters that have not already been the subject of other inquiries and/or media coverage since 2009/2010. It does, however, contain further detail such as email correspondence provided to the inquiry by FFA. The report also states that “the Investigatory Chamber does not intend to pursue formal investigatory proceedings against any individual bid team member.”

FFA reiterates that the financial management of the bid was routinely reported to Government and reviewed by independent external auditors. Its payment to CONCACAF was also investigated by the Australian Federal Police which found that no Commonwealth offence was identified.

FFA has said repeatedly that the bid process for 2018 and 2022 was deeply flawed and that mistakes were made by the Australian bid team.

However, FFA notes that FIFA continues to reform its governance, including relating to future tournament bids, and is confident mistakes of the past will not be repeated.